He doesn’t get to the book until about 35 or so minutes in… but it’s a good post-colonial examination of a shitty British sci-fi novel…
Is one of them Wilt Chamberlain?
Basically the plot of Anathem.
In 1977, when NASA launched Voyagers 1 and 2, designed to probe the far reaches of the solar system, the songs of the humpbacks went with them. The agency outfitted each craft with a “golden record” that could be played using a stylus (also included) by any alien who happened to intercept it. The recording featured greetings in fifty-five languages—“Hello from the children of planet Earth,” the English speaker said—as well as a sequence from one of Payne’s whales.
I remember that!
When White Men Set Standards of “Normalcy” - Dame Magazine
White cisgender heterosexual men have assumed the power to define the terms for how to be—and not to be—in the world, rendering the rest of us aberrations. And that should terrify all of us.
Wild take on the Amish.
This set of thoughtful tweets, which I am unable to post as a compiled longer piece, had a few things to say to me, related to the hypocrite phenomenon. Of course, if hardcore GOP types are hypocrites,* they will be the last people on earth to admit it.
(… the thread continues on Twitter… he nails the intersectionality and the destructive power dynamics pretty well.)
I realize that most of this is not going to be new info for many on this bbs, but I appreciated the writer’s perspective and candor.
ETA:
*
I was definitely taken aback by some of the justifications given in the article. In the past, news articles in PA tended to raise concerns about the Amish being victimized by outsiders when cases involving healthcare, traffic, or scams were reported. Then stories about illegal and unethical cases involving sexual assault, hate crimes, and animal cruelty cast those communities in a different light.
It was really chilling to read how easily some twist rules into a pretzel to serve their own ends. The attitude that something is OK as long as no one else sees it - or avoiding conflict with someone who believes it is wrong means it is OK - was stunning. That is not the same as gaining consensus (or approval) to confirm doing something new or different is right or acceptable. The lure of greed and pursuit of profit means leaders in that community might need to be less focused on corruption from the outside and more concerned that “the call is coming from inside the house.”
The types of workarounds mentioned are reminiscent of how many ultra Orthodox Jews get around the prohibitions on work, lighting fires and travel beyond the home during Shabbat. Timers on lights, crockpots and other automated cooking devices, a piece of string wrapped around the neighborhood, creating an eruv so that it’s ok to travel-and plenty of other tricks. Then there is the tradition of the shabbos goy-the non Jew brought in to do the forbidden stuff for you. It must have felt like a tiny bit of payback for the day-to-day crap otherwise heaped on the Jews.
New York City Is a Lot Safer Than Small-Town America
Rising homicide rates don’t tell the whole story. When you dig deeper into data on deaths, you’ll find the more urban your surroundings, the less danger you face.
Not sure where else to put this, but it could possibly also go in the misogyny thread?
After too many stories of child actors and others in the entertainment industry who had terrible experiences because of little-to-no parental supervision, I’m thinking she was right in where she initially placed the blame. What is it about being star struck or a stage parent that blinds people to their children being at risk for serious injury? Not saying she’s wrong about the responsibility of the director, but acting helpless after watching this happen is inexcusable:
when an assistant director came over to say they needed another take, my father said, with genuine remorse: “I’m afraid they have to do it again, love. I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.”
There was plenty he could’ve done, including take her home, he just chose not to.
